Valpolicella and Zipping Caleb Take Wenty Features
By Jeff Collerson
Valpolicella, named after an Italian wine his bottle-shop-owning father once sold, gave Sydney accountant Sandro Bechini his biggest win as an owner when she led throughout in Saturday night's Christmas Cheer at Wentworth Park.
Valpolicella began cleanly from box one and just held out Punter's Bandit (box four) to hold the lead at the first turn before drawing away to win by four lengths.
Ritza Piper got up to cut Punter's Bandit out of second prizemoney, with the winner covering the 720m in 41.80, easily her fastest Wentworth Park 720m time in three attempts.
"I have owned greyhounds since I was 16, so Valpolicella's win is far and away the biggest I've had in 43 years as an owner,'' an excited Bechini said later.
Valpolicella is trained in Queensland by Tony Zammit, whose brother Michael won the 2023 Million Dollar Chase with Jay Is Jay.
Saturday's Christmas Gift was taken out by the Minnie Finn-trained Zipping Caleb, who came from seventh at the first turn to win running away from Eyes To Eyes and tearaway pacemaker My Hepburn.
Zipping Caleb's superb railing ability sent him from seventh early to be a distant third on the back straight, but he powered home to win in 29.61.
Minne Finn said later: "He is a very good Chaser and keeps finding the fence.''
As an October 2021, whelping, Zipping Caleb is eligible to tackle greyhounds his own age in next month's Group 1 Ladbrokes National Derby at Wentworth Park.
Jet BOOTS Tommy showed explosive early pace to set up a big early lead, reeling off early splits of 5.40 and 13.82 before winning in 30.06.
After the race Edwards said: "He has always had heaps of early pace and when he ran second at his first start at Wenty, without having had a look at the track, his first split was 5.36.
"He got run down that night but he certainly didn't tonight.''
Edwards bred BOOTS-tommy">Jet BOOTS">BOOTS">BOOTS Tommy from his bitch Racing BOOTS, who is a sister to Andy Lord's former top-class stayer Just Terms.
Owner Mark Duclos paid tribute to Andy Lord after the trainer won with his dog Canya Smoke Them in 30.00 at Wentworth Park on Saturday.
Duclos said: "Canya Smoke Them won the Million Dollar Chase Maiden final for me but he was sidelined from April to November so Andy has done a remarkable job to bring him back to winning in town.''
Syd Swain won the 2003 Golden Easter Egg with Cyrus The Virus and is already eyeing the 2024 Group 1 race with Miss Zig Zag.
Miss Zig Zag clocked 29.69, the quickest of her four Wentworth Park wins, when she led all the way over 520m on Saturday night.
After the race, Syd Swain said: "I reckon she can get down to 29.50 or even 29.40 by Easter so all being well I will be having a crack at the Easter Egg with her.''
